Michigan pitcher Jordan Taylor out indefinitely with undisclosed injury
The Michigan softball team is going to be without its All-American pitcher for a while.
Senior Jordan Taylor is out indefinitely with an undisclosed injury suffered Thursday during Michigan’s practice following a doubleheader sweep of Penn State on Wednesday.
Jordan Taylor has a 21-3 record this season.
“She’s injured,” Michigan coach Carol Hutchins said, declining explanation on the specifics of Taylor’s injury. “I expect to have her back, but I don’t know when.”
Taylor has been a mainstay for Michigan throughout the past four seasons. She's one of the best pitchers in school history, was a second-team All-American in 2008 and 2010 and was named to ESPN.com’s preseason All America team this year.
The Big Ten’s Pitcher of the Year in 2010, she pitched every big game for Michigan this season, compiling a 21-3 record, but had a career-high 1.49 ERA.
She is second all-time at Michigan in appearances (150), third in complete games (89), second in strikeouts (1,107) and is Michigan’s all-time leader in saves (17) and no-hitters (seven).
Still, the past few weeks, she has struggled.
“I’ve even sensed Jordan hasn’t pitched really great the past couple of weeks,” Hutchins said. “We had been giving up four runs a game before (Saturday).
“She had felt a lot of pressure to carry all of it for us.”
In Taylor’s place, Michigan will rely on sophomore Stephanie Speierman and junior Hilary Payne, both of whom pitched this weekend.
In Michigan’s come-from-behind 3-2 win over Iowa on Sunday, both pitched and started to gain the confidence of their teammates, who had leaned on Taylor to pitch them out of jams often.
“(Saturday) you could see it a little bit that the energy was down, we were all kind of wondering how everything was going to go,” freshman outfielder Nicole Sappingfield said. “We have faith in Stephanie, even though she hasn’t pitched in a lot of games. But she does well.
“We had a lot of faith in her that she would step up and pull through and she did. So did Hilary. Hilary did a great job, too.”
Taylor was unavailable for comment after Michigan's win over Iowa, per a Michigan spokesperson.
Michael Rothstein covers Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by email at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.
Comments
Lorain Steelmen
Mon, Apr 25, 2011 : 8:30 p.m.
Given the 'current situation', this team must be 'loose' and yet 'focused'...how do you do that, you say? By staying focused, in doing what you do best, AND, by embracing the challenge, rather than by being 'suffocated' by it! Dare to do all those little things, you LOVE to do! Play with passion. Enjoy it! This team may grow stronger and tougher, through this temporary adversity. Good luck ladies, stay 'nasty', and don't take any prisioners the rest of the way.
chapmaja
Mon, Apr 25, 2011 : 3:54 p.m.
Michigan needs her back come tourney time. The best thing for Michigan right now is that they are to a point in the season they should be able to do well the next couple weeks without her. Looking at the Big Ten Standings, they still have MSU, OSU, Minnesota and Wisconsin left. The highest ranked team in the Big Ten they have yet to play is tied with PSU for 6th. Beyond the Gopher's they have the 9th (Wisconsin), 10th (MSU), and 11th (OSU) placed teams in the Big Ten left. Michigan even with the other two pitchers should be able to win the majority, if not all of those games as long as they can hit the ball, something they struggled with against Iowa. Michigan is currently tied atop the Big Ten with Indiana at 10-2. The Hoosiers have a much tougher finish to the conference season with games against Illinois (5th), Iowa (3rd), Northwestern(8th) and Purdue (4th). I think Michigan has a huge edge in the race for the Big Ten title. If Michigan wins 7 of the last 9 games this season (including a game vs EMU) they should end up easily as one of the top couple seeds in the tourney and will host a regional and Super Regional.
Engineer
Mon, Apr 25, 2011 : 12:27 a.m.
We are going to miss Jordan for sure but the pitchers did well this weekend. It was the hitting that seemed sluggish. It was the seventh inning Sunday before they came alive with any consistancy. Good job overall ladies and remember the team the team the team. Do be down; step up, the expectation is for the position not the person. GO BLUE!!!!!